This was the event that drew me across the ocean at last. I had made
a deal with myself: If I heard that either Tomosaka Rie or The Thrill were
performing in Tokyo, I would go. Get on the plane, figure it out when
I got there. Just like that. That’s pretty much how the first trip happened.
I saw the notice for the On-Air West show online and sent a note to Kunio.
the trombonist who also manages the band, to save a ticket for me at the door.
We never met, but the ticket was there.
They used to be “The Million Dollar Band” (maybe for their combined
debts), but lately they are calling themselves “ The Gorgeous
Rock n’ Jazz Big Band.” I hear them in commercials,
and think sometimes I find them lurking behind pop singers.
They’re like the Tower of Power of Japan, just bigger.
 Like all the great monsters that are drawn to Tokyo.
Yes, that IS Godzilla as a Christmas lights display. This one,
 at the Takashimaya store in Shinjuku.
I think of what it might have been like if Dizzy Gilispie and Cab Calloway
had been able to build a big band together (instead, knives were drawn).
Think of the fun, and how intense the music would have been. These guys
are certainly working towards a place like that.
Yukarie is one of the tenors. A honker. Aggressive. (Well, the whole band is
very aggressive) She seems to be a celebrity beyond The Thrill. She tried
a pop career for a couple of months as the bass player for a band called
Mean Machine. An angular little quintet, with a pretty cool first single called
“Su-ha.” Reminded me of PIL.
The other tenor is Ishikawa Hiroaki, who also provides the suave and languid
patter between songs. Funny guy. Plays the clavinet, too. There was a guest electric
violinist that night, a confident young man with blonde hair and a Motzart-sh air about him...
called Naldo. Hiro had a way of saying his name that sounded like sarcasm dipping with opium.
I can imagine him in a band in Berlin in the 1930s.
But the band belongs to the rhythm section, grounded by Yokoyama Hidenori, the bassist.
Long dreadlocks and a fretless electric, poppin’ and sliding around, keeping the rhythm tight.
A very powerful drummer. A rock guitarist who listens to old sould bands.

Maybe you can make the trip, too, sometime: http://www.thethrill.info/index.html